The Craftiest Workshop

We were unexpectedly blessed last week with something we put our name in for back in early spring. Actually, I had given up hope that we would ever be considered.

I can’t recall how we heard about this program but either through watching a YouTube video or reading comments on a post. The program runs via a website called Chip Drop.

Basically it is a program to get free wood chips delivered to your property. We paid a few hundred dollars at a local landscaping business to get a pile of wood chips for our first tree planting experience. This past spring we got free wood chips at a park in town where they were offered to the public. Chris filled the back of our Ford Escape with wood chips; the car smelled like trees for quite awhile after.

Around the same time we got the wood chips this year, we found out about Chip Drop. You can check the FAQ section to find out if there have been drops in your area. Basically arborists need a place to get rid of the chipped branches and (optional) logs that they process. It costs them more to take their load to the landfill. The website does charge them a small fee to access addresses to drop their woodchips. In Canada, there is no cost for the person allowing them to dump wood chips on their property

We were quite excited back in May/June when we signed up. We pictured this mountain of wood chips arriving on our property. We had plans to add more around our newly planted Haskaps and cranberry plants. We eventually would like wood chips around all our garden boxes/garden beds.

Well, June passed by and I was busy with planting garden, putting in trees and dealing with weeds so it was alright that we didn’t get any wood chips. July was berry picking time, cutting grass and more weeding so I was glad no wood chips arrived. August was garden harvest, more cutting grass and processing berries. By then I had pretty much forgotten about wood chips. September was apple month, picking, processing and perserving. October we got the garden all ready for winter and wood chips were the farthest thing from my mind.

You can imagine my surprise when Chris texted me one day last week, when he was in town teaching, to say that some wood chips would be dropped off. In my head I thought that it was someone we know who had a contact with the city that had come through. It turned out that it was from signing up with Chip drop. They dumped this pile then came back again afterwards with another load. The photo is a bit grainy as I took it from our deck.

We were told, and it makes sense, that it gets hard for arborists to find people in town willing to take wood chips in late fall or winter. No one wants a load of wood chips dumped on their driveway just before it snows. So, even though we live a half hour drive outside Grande Prairie, we become a viable option for them. We have lots of space and don’t care how much we get or even if it is just logs.

Now our pile is under a bit of snow but it will still be fine to use come spring.

This is more wood chips than the load we got two years ago that we paid quite a bit for.

The chips are really nice too,; small and not many small twigs in it.

When one is just starting to landscape and create gardens, this program is ideal. Wood chips are great for putting around trees and berry bushes to keep moisture in, protect from the sun and keep weeds down. Woodchips can be added to the compost pile as the brown material. We also would like to create some woodchip paths through our small forest but we would need a lot more wood chips for that. I am thankful that this program exists and I think it is great that it helps both parties and keeps less material from piling up at the landfill.